1992 Theater Plan For Courtrooms

 In 1992 a proposal was made to convert the Star Theater in Covington into courtroom facilities to ease overcrowding in the St. Tammany Parish Administrative Complex over in the next block. The need for more courtrooms was pressing, and the one courtroom parish courthouse on Boston Street had been outgrown for years. 

A few years earlier, in 1983, The Southern Hotel building had been purchased by the parish and converted into the Administrative Complex which contained a police jury meeting room and a courtroom or two, so the Star Theater proposal was not that unusual. 

Warren Salles, owner of both the Star Theater and the building diagonally across the Gibson Street/New Hampshire Street intersection, also proposed turning the old Acme Building into another courtroom. It had at one time housed the Deluxe Theater, which had also been owned by the Salles family. 

The Star Theater courtroom proposal would have provided around 10,000 square feet of floorspace to court facilities. It would have been connected to the existing courthouse by an interior hallway. The plans called for two judges office, two jury rooms, other staff offices and a number of restrooms. 

Here are the tentative plans for the renovation.

Click on the image to make it larger. 

When the proposal did not proceed, the parish, a few years later, decided to buy the old P&W Industries site at the end of New Hampshire Street two blocks north and by 2000 work began on building a much larger justice center at that location. 

For more information, click on the following links:

Courthouse History

Courthouses of St. Tammany Parish

The History of the Southern Hotel

The 1984 Southern Hotel Renovation

Riverside Park To Feature Ropes, Slides, and Chutes

 A new family fun adventure park, complete with climbing structures, downhill slides, and a rope challenge course, is now being built at the end of the service road that runs by Chimes Restaurant in Covington.

The "Tree Frogs" Adventure Park will feature a wide variety of bluff side activities, including two covered pavilions near the Bogue Falaya River for hosting birthday parties and other events. Click on the images below to make them larger. 

The platform overlooking the lowlands

A "Tree Frog" adventure park is also being planned for Fontainebleau Park in Mandeville. A similar location has already been in operation in LaPlace. 

A large concrete pumper was brought in this week to pour the concrete walkways. 

Spiral slide tubes and hanging rope ladders dot the landscape. 

One elevated walkway is suspended over the lowlands. 

Ropes, nets, and tree-hugging platforms.

Steps going down the bluff. 

Tubes going down the bluff

Landscaping being brought in and planted. 

For more information, click on the links below:

https://www.facebook.com/TreeFrogsPark

https://treefrogspark.com/

Boarding Houses, Hotels and Bakery in 1893

 Here are advertisements for some of the many hotels and boarding houses in the Covington area, plus a bakery, in the year 1893... 

Click on the image to make it larger.